At a late meeting of the Baltimore Annual Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church held at Baltimore, the following
preamble and Resolutions were unanimously adopted, and the
names of all the members and probationers present, in number,
one hundred and fifty-seven, were subscribed, and ordered to
be published. The secretary was also directed to furnish Rev.
John A. Collins, with a copy for insertion in the Globe and
Intelligencer, of Washington City.
Whereas great excitement has pervaded this country for some
time past on the subject of abolition; and whereas such
excitement is believed to be destructive to the best
interests of the country and of religion; therefore
1. _Resolved_, That "we are as much as ever convinced of the
great evil of slavery."
2. That we are opposed in every part and particular to the
proceedings of the abolitionists, which look to the immediate
indiscriminate, and general emancipation of slaves.
3. That we have no connexion with any press, by whomsoever
conducted, in the interest of the abolition cause.
As to his own Connection, the Presbyterian, he would go as fully as
his materials permitted, into the proof of their past principles, and
present posture. And in the first place he was most happy to be able
to present them with an abstract of the decisions of the General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.
He found it printed in the New York Observer, of May 23, 1835,
embodied in the proceedings of the Presbytery of Montrose, and
transcribed by it no doubt from the Assembly's digest.
As early as A. D. 1787, the Synod of N. York and Philadelphia
issued an opinion adverse to slavery, and recommended
measures for its final extinction; and in the year 1796 the
General Assembly assured "all the churches under their care,
that they viewed with the deepest concern any vestiges of
slavery which then existed in our country;" and in the year
1815 the same judicatory decided, "that the buying and
selling of slaves by way of traffic, (meaning, doubtless, the
domestic traffic,) is inconsistent with the spirit of the
gospel." But in the year 1818, a more full and explicit
avowal of the sentiments of the church was unanimously agreed
on in the General Assembly. "We consider, (say the Assembly,)
the voluntary enslaving of one part of the human race by
another, as a gross violation of the most precious and sacred
rights of human nature; as utterly inconsistent with the law
of God, which requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves;
and as totally irreconcilable with the spirit and principles
of the gospel of Christ, which enjoin, that "whatever ye
would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." They
add, "It is manifestly the duty of all Christians who enjoy
the light of the present day, when the inconsistency of
slavery, both with the dictates of humanity and religion, has
been demonstrated, and is generally seen and acknowledged, to
use their honest, earnest and unwearied endeavors to correct
the errors of former times, and as speedily as possible, to
efface this blot on our holy religion, and to obtain the
complete abolition of slavery throughout Christendom and if
possible, throughout the world."
If, said Mr. B., he had expressed sentiments different from these, or
if he had inculcated as the principles of his brethren any thing
different from these just and noble sentiments, let the blame be
heaped upon his bare head. These sentiments they had held from a
period to which the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. Here
tonight, 3000 miles off, God enabled him to produce a record proving
an antiquity of half a century, in full maturity! How grand, how far
sighted, how illustrious is truth--compared with the wretched and new
born, and blear eyed fanaticism that carps at her! These are the
principles of the Presbyterian church of the United States. She has
risen with them, she will stand, or, if it be God's will, she will
fall with them. But she will not change them less or more. The General
Assembly is but now adjourned. They have had this question before
them--perhaps have been deeply agitated by its discussion. But so
tranquilly does my heart rest on the truth of these principles, and on
the fixed adherence to them, by my brethren, that nothing but a
feeling that it would be impertinent, in one like me, to vouch for a
body like that, could deter me from any lawful gage, that all its
decisions will stand with its ancient and unaltered principles. In
accordance with these principles the great body of the members of that
church had been all along acting.--There were about 24 synods under
the care of the General Assembly, of which about one third were in
the slave country. The number was constantly increasing, on which
account, and in the absence of all records, he could not be more
exact. The synods in the free states stood, he believed, without
exception, just where the Assembly stood, on this subject. In the
slave states, much had been done--much was still doing--and in proof
of this as regarded this particular denomination--in addition to what
he had all along declared, with reference to the great emancipation
party, in all of those states, he asked attention to the several
documents he was about to lay before them. The first was a series of
resolutions appended to a lucid and extended report, drawn up by a
large committee of Ministers and Elders of the synod of Kentucky--in
obedience to its orders after the subject had been several years
before that body. That Synod embraces the whole state of _Kentucky_,
which is one of the largest slave states in the Union. The resolutions
are quoted from the New York Observer, of April 23, 1836.
1. We would recommend that all slaves now under 20 years of
age, and all those yet to be born in our possession be
emancipated, as they severally reach their 25th year.
2. We recommend that deeds of emancipation be now drawn up,
and recorded in our respective County Courts, specifying the
slaves we are about to emancipate, and the age at which each
is to become free.
This measure is highly necessary, as it will furnish to our
own minds, to the world, and to our slaves, satisfactory
proof of our sincerity in this work; and it will also secure
the liberty of the slaves against contingencies.
3. We recommend that our slaves be instructed in the common
elementary branches of education.
4. We recommend that strenuous and persevering efforts be
made, to induce them to attend regularly upon the ordinary
services of religion, both domestic and public.
5. We recommend that great pains be token to teach them the
Holy Scriptures; and that to effect this, the instrumentality
of Sabbath Schools, wherever they can be enjoyed, be united
with that of domestic instruction.
The plan revealed in these resolution, was the one of all others,
which most commended itself to his (Mr. B.'s) judgment. And he most
particularly asked their attention to it, on an account somewhat
personal. He had several times been publicly referred to in this
country, as having shown the sincerity of his principles in the
manumission of his own slaves. He was most anxious that no error
should exist on this subject, which he had not at any time, had any
part in bringing before the public, and which, as often only as he was
forced to do so, had he explained. The introductory remarks of the
Chairman, had laid him under the necessity of such an explanation,
which had not so naturally occurred, as in this connexion. He took
leave, therefore, to say, that this Kentucky plan, was in substance
the one he had been acting on for some years before its existence; and
which he should probably be among the earliest, if his life was
spared, fully to complete. He considered it substantially the same as
their system for West India Emancipation; only more rapid as to
adults, more tardy, cautious, and beneficent as to minors; and more
generous, as being wholly without compensation. In plans that affect
whole nations, and successive generations, questions of _time_ are of
all others, least important; of all others the most proper to make
bend to the necessities of the case. He went only to say further, that
his brother, the Rev. Dr. Breckinridge, of whom Mr. Thompson speaks
with such affectation of scorn, had entered this good field before
him, and taken one course with his manumitted slaves. That a younger
brother, whose name, along with nine other beloved and revered names,
is attached to this Kentucky report, had also entered it before him;
and taken a second course, a different course still, in liberating
his. When he came, last of all, he had taken still a third, different
from each; while other friends had pursued others still. What wisdom
their combined, and yet varied experience could have afforded, was of
course useless; now that all the deepest questions of abstract truth,
and the most difficult of personal practice, were solved by instinct,
and carried by storm.
The next extract related to the great slave holding State of North
Carolina, and revealed a plan for the religious instruction and care
of the souls of the slaves, intended to cover the States of Virginia,
Georgia, and South Carolina, all slave States of the first class, as
well as the one in which it originated. Its origin is due to the
Presbyterian Synod, covering the whole of that State. The extract is
from the New York Observer of June 20, 1835.